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US-employed Iraqis attacked

Four female employees at the US run Baghdad airport were killed and three others wounded after armed men attacked the minibus taking them to work, an Interior Ministry source says.

05 Jul 2005 20:41 GMT

Armed attackers rained the workers' minibus with bullets

The attack happened at about 8am (0400 GMT) in Ameriya, a tense area in western Baghdad, and was followed by clashes between armed men and Iraqi security forces, the source said, adding it was unclear whether there were any casualties from the fighting.

There have been several deadly incidents in the past involving Iraqis working at the airport.

Video taped actions

The Islamic Army in Iraq and the Mujahidin Army have released a video showing a joint operation in which a car bomb was detonated targeting a US army patrol in al-Huwaija town, near Kirkuk.

Aljazeera could not verify the authenticity of the tape, which carried the logo of the two organisations.

In other incidents in Iraq, at least five Iraqi soldiers were killed and seven others injured after their patrol came under attack in the Abu Ghraib district to the west of Baghdad, according to medical sources.

In Ramadi, 110km west of Baghdad, the residents of Albo Faraj village have accused US troops of opening fire on a civilian car killing two passengers, one of them a girl, and injuring three others.

The residents of al-Zaidan district, west of Baghdad, marched on a funeral of five people they said were killed by US troops.

Two statements issued by the Association of Muslim Scholars and Dignitaries of Zuba tribe, to which the victims belong, have accused the US troops of killing the five men with explosives after five days of their arrest. The US troops have not responded to the accusations.

Iran embassy blast

Also in the capital, a convoy of Western security guards was hit by a roadside bomb on Tuesday outside the Iranian embassy, wounding an Iraqi civilian and damaging a vehicle, the US military and security sources said.

The attack targeted a "personnel security detachment", said a US military spokesman, using the customary term for private security guards.

US soldiers on foot and in armoured vehicles were seen on the road minutes after the attack which happened at about 10.15am (0615 GMT). Earlier, an Interior Ministry source had said that a US convoy was the target of the attack.

A roadside bomb exploded outside the Iranian embassy

An official at the embassy reached by telephone said the building and all of the mission's staff were fine. "It happened on the road outside. Everything is fine here," Hussein Anwar said.

In a separate incident, the US military said one of its patrols was hit by a roadside bomb in southeastern Baghdad and that "there were several casualties transported to hospital".

In Samawa in south-western Iraq, the Japanese military said four mortars landed on its base in the city late on Monday. There were no casualties.

Four mortar rounds landed on a US military base just north of the Shia holy city of Najaf on Monday evening, witnesses said. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Iraqis seized

Elsewhere, armed men seized eight Iraqis as they drove to work at a US base in Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, said police Colonel Modhafar al-Majmaie. A car bomb killed two civilians in western Baghdad, police said.

In separate incidents in Mosul, armed men killed a senior member of the Kurdish Democratic Party's (KDP) Mosul branch and a bodyguard of the provincial Nineveh governor, officials said.

Iraqi soldiers were also killed and others injured in a car bomb explosion targeting their patrol in al-Shuhada neighbourhood south of Falluja, medical sources told Aljazeera.

In Tal Afar, about 50km west of Mosul, armed men assassinated a council member, Abdul Kareem Suleiman, officials said.